"literally" again

[sagehen]

>At 11/7/2006 08:48 PM, you wrote:
>>On NPR ("All Things Cosidered") 11/7
>>
>>Speaking of Mercury's upcoming transit of the sun :"quite literally have
>>its moment in the sun."  (Unlike the rest of the solar system?)
>>AM
>
>Yes, unlike.  Planets (or small planetary objects) outside the orbit
>of the Earth cannot have transits of the (or at least our!) sun.  So
>Mercury is in the intimate company of only Venus.
>
>Besides, "literally ... in the sun" reads to me like a clever
>phrasing -- during a transit Mercury occupies the same place in the
>visual field as the sun.  (I viewed its last transit a year or two
>ago, but don't remember whether Mercury totally, or only partially,
>obscures the sun.)
>
>Joel
 ~~~~~~~~~
I wasn't laughing at "literally in transit" but "literally have its moment
in the sun."  Transit has to do with orbit & POV, but the rest of us
planetary bodies are all "in the sun" nearly all the time.  Only the
occasional total eclipse we may afford each other gives us our moments *out
of* the sun.
AM

 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
W stands for >:<  War ____Waste___Wiretaps____Witchhunts  >:<
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org